Not everyone who loves garden strawberries will dare to grow their seedlings on their own. Having listened to the difficulties and failures that have befallen even experienced gardeners, few will want to take risks. It is much easier to buy already prepared seedlings on the market, although no one here guarantees an excellent result.
Cultivation of seedlings from seed begins with the selection of planting material. The most tested will be the seeds from your own berries, when you know exactly the variety and fertility of the plant. Buying bags with seeds on the market, give preference to small strawberries - it is unpretentious in care, more resistant to unfavorable conditions, harvesting, and the seeds in the package are larger than in the elite large-fruited.
Sprinkling strawberries on seedlings
So, when is it better to plant strawberries on seedlings? In order to harvest this year, it is necessary to sow in early February. Thus, already good viable plants will be able to grow into the open ground.
It is important that, at all stages of the development of young plants, they can be easily followed. For this, a plastic container with a lid is the best. In the bottom, pierce with a hot knitting needle a few holes to drain water and access the air to the roots.
The land is suitable for the most ordinary, vegetable, with the addition of fine sand. You need to rub it with your hands, so that there are no big lumps and carefully, without pressing, leveling the surface. The earth can be slightly moistened from the spray gun, but do not water, then evenly sow the seeds on the entire surface without sprinkling the earth.
Excellent growth of strawberry seedlings and peat pills . Use them can be similar to ordinary soil, placing in a container with a lid, but in each tablet to place only one seed. Further care as usual seedlings in the ground. When picking, roots are not damaged, and the plant is actively growing.
Next is stratification - it is an artificial wintering of seeds, simulating natural conditions, only proceeding in a shorter time. Sown seeds in the box are covered with a 2-3 cm layer of snow, which should be slightly compacted, after which the container closed with a lid is placed on the coldest shelf of the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
How to grow seedlings?
After 14 days, the container is transferred to a cold lighted place, where seeds germinate at different times depending on the strawberry variety (from 14 to 30 days).
As soon as they proklyulis, with a red-hot needle, we make several holes per day in the lid for the gradual adaptation of seedlings to the environment. Watering, as a rule, at this time is not required - there is enough thawed snow, but if the land is dried, then it should be moistened from the sprayer with thawed water.
As soon as the plant forms 2-3 leaves, it is dived into individual small cups and is no longer harvested, regularly monitoring the moisture of the soil. After mid-May strawberries can be planted in the open ground.